The HTML5 spec has just whitelisted the bitcoin protocol in order to allow web sites and web apps to register themselves as possible handlers for this protocol.

Therefore, it's now possible in the last chromium build to register your bitcoin app/site by calling navigator.registerProtocolHandler.You may want to have a look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/URI_Scheme if you're about to create one.

Today's the day. The #NDAA is now on Obama's desk, awaiting his signature. Hearing reports on Twitter that his phone lines are 'swamped' and 'slammed' with callers demanding he veto it.

Call the White House NOW and tell Barack Obama's staff in a short, polite message that the power to detain and torture any American citizen, without charge, trial, or access to an attorney, is not a power he -- nor any future President -- should have.

Phone: 202-456-1414Alternate line: 202-456-1111

This is the United States of America. Some things just aren't tolerated here.

EDIT: As this radical legislation also applies to citizens of other nations, people everywhere are encouraged to call in and urge Obama to veto the NDAA.

In just two decades, the world wide web has transformed and democratized access to information all around the world. I am proud of the role Google has played alongside many others such as Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Twitter. Whether you are a student in an internet cafe in the developing world or a head of state of a wealthy nation, the knowledge of the world is at your fingertips.

Of course, offering these services has come with its challenges. Multiple countries have sought to suppress the flow of information to serve their own political goals. At various times notable Google websites have been blocked in China, Iran, Libya (prior to their revolution), Tunisia (also prior to revolution), and others. For our own websites and for the internet as a whole we have worked tirelessly to combat internet censorship around the world alongside governments and NGO promoting free speech.

Thus, imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States. Two bills currently making their way through congress -- SOPA and PIPA -- give the US government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial). While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don't believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.

Congress is holding hearings on a really bad bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) today. If you can call Congress today and ask them not to support SOPA or PROTECT IP, it would take just five minutes but would make a big difference.

If you grew up in a different state or if you can convince your parents to call Congress too, that would really help too. Please reshare wherever you can!

This is big, guys. Any of you in the States, raise a fuss with your representatives. It's no exaggeration to say that PIPA/PROTECT IP/E-PARASITES breaks the Internet and would make many of the websites you love illegal. It would give Hollywood and the recording industry the power to shut down any site they feel "infringes upon intellectual property". It has to die.

Why aren't you guys more vocal on stopping SOPA? This bill has the potential to destroy the Internet as we know it, yet Google's been disappointingly silent.

I know the lobbying game is a dirty and corrupt one, but we can't allow Hollywood's comfort with that fact to threaten the much larger, much more important tech sector. It's time to start spending some of your stockpile on defending the Internet from legislative threats such as SOPA. If this bill had been law in 2000, we'd have no YouTube, and sites like Wikipedia could have been shut down before they'd had time to implement a mature copyright policy. Please do your part to allow future YouTubes and Wikipedias to spring up and oppose this bill as strongly as you can.

Cale McNulty: Bah.. tried to send this to +Eric Schmidt and make it public as well. Still figuring out G+...